(4 of 6)
Rightist Spain's 35 Provinces and their capital cities are governed by "Civil Governors," who are actually military governors appointed by General Franco. Minor local officials, if they are not known Reds, generally keep their jobs in captured territory if they behave themselves. As in Leftist Spain, Rightist Spain's law is martial. On both sides firing squads still produce many casualties. On both sides, too, almost sure death awaits anyone unlucky enough to witness an execution, even by accident.
Softspoken, studious Francisco Franco Bahamonde is no university man. He was born in Galicia 45 years ago, son of the commandant of the Ferrol naval base. In the tradition of a thoroughly militaristic family, elder Brother Nicolas went into the navy, second son Francisco went into the Infantry Academy at Toledo's Alcazar at the age of 14. In due time youngest brother Ramon Franco went into the aviation service. Shockheaded, wild-eyed Brother Ramon Franco was the first member of the family to make world headlines. In 1926, widely hailed as the "Spanish Lindbergh," he flew non-stop from Cadiz to Buenos Aires, later became air attache to the Spanish embassy at Washington. When the revolution broke last year, hot-headed Brother Ramon made no secret of his Leftist sentiments. Somewhere in Rightist Spain today, Brother Ramon is sitting in jail.
Brother Francisco had been under fire in Morocco at the age of 17, helped General Milan Astray form the Spanish Foreign Legion, and got his first working knowledge of fascism when he was picked by Dictator Primo de Rivera to act as liaison officer with the French in the Riff campaign of 1925. He won his brigadiership and the distinction of being the youngest general in Spain at the age of 34. When a military academy was established at Saragossa young Francisco Franco became its first director.
Francisco Franco was neither one of the original conspirators in the civil war, nor the first choice of its instigators as its military leader. In 1936, as soon as the Madrid Government announced that national elections had returned a thumping Leftist majority, plans for the rebellion were laid. Guiding spirit was the devious Catholic politician Jose Maria Gil Robles, now Rightist representative to Portugal. Leader of the rebellion was to be General Jose Sanjurjo. Francisco Franco, whom the republican Government had rusticated on the Canary Islands, was expected to play a part, but a minor one. On the word of the cocksure conspirators that the whole rebellion would be over in two weeks—make it a month and be sure— most of the financial backing came from the "Richest Man in Spain,'' Monarchist Count of Romanones and racketeer-tycoon Juan March, the uneducated, onetime tobacco smuggler. Date of the uprising was set for July 25, 1936, the feast of Santiago (St. James). The murder of Fascist Deputy Jose Calvo Sotelo on July 12 pulled the trigger prematurely.